Scenario: The Last Line of Defense

Hi all,

After all the discussion of James Butler’s “Battlepod Swarm From Hell”
idea, I thought it might make an interesting basis for a
last-ditch-defense-of-the-home-planet scenario, ala the Battle of the
Line from Babylon 5. So while doing laundry tonight (doesn’t everyone design
sci-fi battles at the laundromat?), I put together a scenario, throwing
in a couple stations and some mines for the sake of variety.

It is (needless to say) a HUGE scenario -- even counting the
“Munchkins” by
squadrons of 5, you still have about 20 ships/squadrons per side. I
would probably want to play it with multiple players per side. Alternately,
you could increase the number of ships per squadron to have fewer “groups”
to control. (You can use either the simple squadron rules in MT, or the more
involved system posted here by Joseph Haygood a couple months back.)

So, with apologies to J. Michael Straczinski, here is “The Last Line of
Defense.” If anyone is brave enough to try it out, let me know how it goes!

Scott Field

“Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into
it.”

Tom Lehrer

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THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE

Background: The war had been going badly for the Deltans from the very
beginning. In
almost every encounter with the hated Alphans, they had been out-gunned
and
out-fought. When they intercepted a set of Alphan battle plans showing
that
the Alphan home-world was virtually undefended, they sent all their
FTL-capable ships to attack it. Unfortunately, it was a trap; the Deltan
fleet was ambushed and destroyed. Knowing that the Alphan invasion fleet would
not be long in coming, the Deltans slapped together a makeshift force of
courier ships to augment their system defenses, armed them with what weapons
they could, and waited for the coming storm....

Attacking Forces:

The invasion fleet consists of 4 troop transports, 2 planetary bombardment
monitors, 3 capitals, 4 cruisers, 7 escorts and 7 fighter squadrons. To
simplify things, I've taken all attacking ships (except the minesweeper)
straight out of FT/MT.

Attacking Fleet: 4 * Assault Transports (use the example on p16 of MT) 2 *
Planetary Bombardment Monitors (PBMs) 1 * BattleDreadnought 1 * Light Carrier
1 * Escort Carrier 1 * Heavy Cruiser 2 * Escort Cruisers
1 * Minesweeper   (see below)
2 * Destroyers 1 * Torpedo Destroyer 2 * Frigates 2 * Scouts

Minesweeper Mass: 26 Damage: 13 Thrust: 4
   FTL Drive
   2 * B-Batteries (P/F & F/S)
1 * Minesweeper 1 * PDAF
   LVL-1 Screens
2 * FireCon 2 * Damage Control Parties Cost: 188

Defending Forces:

The defenders have 1 military station, 2 civilian stations, 10 defense
satellites (6-mass mini-stations), 2 system defense cruisers, 4 fighter
squadrons, and 15 squadrons of "Munchkins." Each squadron of Munchkins
consists of 5 ships: there are 6 squadrons of Mk I's, 6 squadrons of Mk
II's,
and 3 of Mk III's. Additionally, the defender may pre-deploy 25 mines.

Defending Fleet: 1 * Military Station 2 * Civilian Stations 10 * Defense
Satellites 2 * System Defense Cruiser (as per MT) 30 Mk I Munchkins 30 Mk II
Munchkins 15 Mk II Munchkins 25 Mines (deployed before game starts)

Defending Ship write-ups:

Military Station Mass: 200 Damage: 100
4 * A-Battery (1-arc)
8 * B-Battery (2-arc)
12 * C-Battery (3-arc)
4 * Pulse Torpedoes 1 * ADAF 4 * PDAF 4 * Fighter Bays
LVL-2 Screens
Enhanced Sensors Individual ECM 5 * FireCons 5 * Damage Control Parties Cost:
721

Civilian Stations Mass: 200 Damage: 50
8 * C-Batteries (3-arc)
4 * Sub-Munition Packs
3 * PDAFs
LVL-1 Screens
Superior Sensors 1 * FireCon 1 * Damage Control Party Cost: 395

Defense Satellites Mass: 6 Damage: 3
1 * A-Battery (4-arc)
1 * FireCon Cost: 28

Munchkin Mk I Mass: 2 Damage: 1 Thrust: 8 1 * FireCon
1 * Sub-Munition Pack
Cost: 11

Munchkin Mk II Mass: 2 Damage: 1 Thrust: 6 1 * FireCon
1 * C-Battery (3-arc)
Cost: 12

Munchkin Mk III Mass: 4 Damage: 2 Thrust: 4 1 * FireCon 1 * Missile Cost: 18

Set-up:
I’ll keep this vague, since it will all depend on the size of the playing
surface you have available. (It had better be big!) The defenders set up on
the “east” 1/3rd of the table, and the attackers enter from the
“west” side. The defender notes the locations of his mines on graph paper,
revealing them whenever an enemy ship comes within passive sensor range of the
mine. All ships begin with a max. velocity of 5.

Withdrawal: Since the defending ships are all sublight, they effectively
cannot withdraw. (Besides, they’re fighting to the death here!) Attacking
ships may withdraw by leaving from the “west” side of the table.

Objectives/ Victory Conditions:

Attacker Decisive Victory: More than 1/2 of troop “cargo mass” and 3
or more functioning Ortillery systems make it off the east edge of the table.
All the defending stations are destroyed.

Attacker Marginal Victory: Less than 1/2 of troop “cargo mass” and 1-2
functioning Ortillery systems make it off the east edge of the table. At least
one of the defending stations is destroyed.

Stalemate: All troop transports are destroyed, but less than 1/4 (by
mass) of the defending force survives.

Defender Marginal Victory: All troop transports are destroyed, and less than
1/2 (by mass) of the defending force survives.

Defender Decisive Victory: All troop transports are destroyed, and more than
1/2 (by mass) of the defending force survives.